With the grown-up love story Cairo
Time (2009), Nadda proved herself a writer and director who could capture
nuance and languor on screen. Unfortunately, she doesn’t fare as well with the
action and tight plotting required for this political thriller. Alexander
Siddig, who also starred in Cairo Time, plays a Syrian-Canadian
businessman whose past role in the Syrian resistance movement comes back to
haunt him when his daughter goes missing in Damascus. The dashing Sidding and
his co-stars Marisa Tomei (as his former lover) and Joshua Jackson (as a shady
diplomat) do their best, but what should be nail-biting is mostly confusing, and
the story suffers from gaps too big to ignore.